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DecibelCast 18 was originally slated to be a compilation of bits from the nascent “alt./future” R&B scene (a particularly fertile area in 2013), but somewhere along the line, that idea was dropped. The revised version still has its share of divas and more than a few love ballads to boot, but there’s also lots of different odds and ends, mashups, remixes, bootlegs and the like. As the name (which is an obvious play on an old internet meme) might suggest the new unifying theme is the bass line. So be certain you listen to this one with a sub.

The vibed out king of euphoria, Balam Acab, wraps his spooky ghost synths and chopped beats around the sexy, plastic lipped pop diva, Lana Del Rey’s track Video Games. As the blogosphere continues to flip out over this chick it seems every day breeds another remix of this song. My personal favorite and probably the only reworking i’ll go back to is Balams, but hey who knows maybe you like the bleeps and blips of Joy Orbison or it’s possible you prefer the simplicity of the marimba on Bombay Bicycle Clubscover. Or perhaps you’re sick of this song and all the buzz that surrounds it. Either way i’ve picked a handful of the ones I thought to be legit enough, some of these artists i’ve never heard of. I’m sure by the time I finish this post there will be 12 more remixes/covers so just deal with it, accept it, and enjoy.

Link to our previous Lana post to hear the original. She just dropped her first physical 7″ via Strange Records yesterday the 17th which has already sold out. You can grab a digital copy through her website while you wait for them to press more copies. Video Games appears on the A side with Blue Jeans on the flip.

If you’ve been reading our blog I’m sure you’ve already figured out that we love us some BALAM ACAB.

His stunning full-length debut Wander/Wonder, released a few weeks back on Triangle Records, is sure to be on a lot of end of year lists.

For those who may have missed it, this is a sick collection of productions he released as a free download last year under his ETHEREA alias. It’s a bunch of originals as well as remixes for artists as diverse as Snoop Dog, Animal Collective, MF Doom and St. Vincent.

Our second glimpse of the debut full length, Wander/Wonder due August 29th on Tri Angle Records, from Pennsylvania based producer Balam Acab has recently surfaced. It’s called Apart and has only amplified the anticipation of his latest effort. We threw up the first single, Oh, Why, last month and this new one sits nicely beside it with Balam’s signature high-pitched vocals and deep resonating beats.

We’ll have to wait until August but judging from the first single to surface Oh, Why, It shall be well worth the wait. Hailing from Pennsylvania, Alex Koone’s Balam Acab project plans to drop the debut full length WANDER / WONDER August 29th on Tri Angle Records. Balam Acab falls in the blossoming “Witch House” genre which we broke down in an earlier post including a video of an extended version of Balam’s standout track See Birds (Moon) off the EP of the same name.

Marked with signature reverb-heavy vocals his music is an experiment in electronic ambiance layered with psychedelic drone. Enveloped in an eerie yet soothing atmosphere, the sounds seem to bubble or seep out of the darkness in a chilling, ghostly and somehow healing rhythm.

the new single off the forthcoming WANDER / WONDER (click to listen right click to download)

For months I’ve been hearing all sorts of shit about this so-called “Witch Haus” stuff, which appears to be chillwave’s evil twin pseudo-genre. So, this past weekend I decided to get my ass down to the Elbo Room to see for myself what the fuss was all about.

First impression: vibe is quite similar to that of the Goth clubs I went to several times while living in Orlando – neon laser lights cutting through fog so dense it must have required multiple machines to produce. DJ: accordingly, skinny white dude dressed all in black with half of his head shaved and the rest of his hair combed over to one side. Music:Swishahouse-style hip-hop screwed-down so much it would have made Michael Watts fall asleep on his turntables… wait what?

And it just got weirder from there. The patrons, a WTF amalgam of hipsters, Goths and typical hip-hop club-goers, were, really eff-d up, on something that wasn’t just alcohol (ketamine maybe? Robotussin?).

GuMMyBeAR from Oakland laid down a mix of music that would have seemed impossible not that long ago: dark ‘80s glam synth pop into noise, into Dubstep and hardcore crunk .

oOoOO, a 6 ft+ drag queen, is San Francisco’s chief purveyor of this stuff, garnering far and away more Internet hype points than any other local act associated with the “genre.” His music is all of those things GuMMyBeAR was playing mashed up together and doused with cough syrup.

Teamsfrom Baltimore, another skinny tall dude (although not in drag) played a mix of gloomy glitch and crooked bass-heavy techno, singing over it at several points. (I took some video of him bouncing around wailing, but unfortunately it’s unwatchable.)

The whole experience was perfectly encapsulated by this intoxicated couple attempting to do that bumpy/grindy dance that couples do in “the club” but failing – badly – to keep the rhythm. At one point I made eye contact with both of them. Inebriated though they clearly were, there was something more. Their faces bore perplexed looks that suggested they were unsure not just of what they were doing, but of where they were and why they were even there.

I came away from the night comparatively disoriented. Although I definitely have an appreciation for oOoOO’s music, as well as that ofBALAM ACAB who’s EP See Birds is off the hook!

*Also while I’m at it, I guess Salem deserves mentioning as they are the granddaddy of all of this hype. Their album King Night – which is full of The Cure-esque synthesizers, gothic choral samples and sluggish beats characterized by crunk hip hop-style 808 snare-rolls and dubstep’s rhythmic accent on the 3rd and 7th counts – sounds like Cevin Key, Slim Thug and Skream made a record, and then DJ Screw remixed it.

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